Washington Update; Budget Edition
WASHINGTON UPDATE
FY 2027 Presidential Budget Request: Special Analysis
April 14, 2026
Dear Colleagues,
The Administration released its discretionary funding request for fiscal year 2027 on Friday, April 3. This budget request carries significant implications for our field. The request proposes to eliminate every dedicated federal program that trains, supports, and sustains the special education teacher workforce including IDEA Part D Personnel Preparation, Hawkins Centers of Excellence, and Teacher Quality Partnership grants while proposing to consolidate the funding into state block grants without federal requirements to invest in educator preparation.
This update is based on a review of the budget documents, the Committee for Education Funding’s detailed funding tables, and the Department of Education’s program-by-program justifications. It walks through what the proposal does, what it means for special education and teacher education, and where the opportunities for engagement lie. The House LHHS Subcommittee deadline for written public witness testimony is April 16; TED has submitted testimony for the record.
1. THE TOPLINE: A $15 BILLION NET REDUCTION BEHIND A 4% HEADLINE
On paper, the Department of Education’s total discretionary funding falls from $78.8 billion to $75.7 billion, a reduction of roughly 3.9 percent. That number does not fully reflect the scope of the proposed changes.
The budget increases discretionary funding for Pell Grants by $10.5 billion, but this is not new investment. It backfills mandatory Pell funding that was provided through budget reconciliation in FY 2026. When you set that accounting shift aside, the actual cut to existing education programs is closer to $15 billion. The Pell increase offsets the elimination or significant reduction of many other programs in the Department’s portfolio.
According to CEF’s analysis, the FY 2027 request cuts K-12 funding, including special education, by $5.96 billion, a 13.3 percent reduction from FY 2026. Higher education programs outside of Pell are cut by $2.66 billion, or 81.3 percent. Career, technical, and adult education funding is eliminated entirely from ED’s budget. The Institute of Education Sciences is cut by 65.8 percent. Program administration is cut by 75 percent.
2. IDEA PART D: EVERY DEDICATED PROGRAM ELIMINATED
This is the section that matters most for TED.
The budget proposes to consolidate seven IDEA programs into a revised state grant. The programs marked for elimination are:
• IDEA Part D Personnel Preparation: $115 million — eliminated
• State Personnel Development Grants: $39 million — eliminated
• Technical Assistance and Dissemination: $39 million — eliminated
• Parent Information Centers: $33 million — eliminated
• Educational Technology, Media, and Materials: $32 million — eliminated
• Preschool Grants (Section 619): $420 million — eliminated as a separate line
• Special Olympics Education: $38 million — frozen (the only Part D survivor)
The IDEA state grant increases from $14.234 billion to $15.401 billion, an increase of $1.167 billion (8.2 percent). The Administration frames this as a historic investment in special education. However, the seven consolidated programs totaled $678 million in FY 2026. When that amount is subtracted from the proposed state grant increase, the net new federal investment in IDEA is approximately $489 million , a meaningful increase, but smaller than the headline figure suggests.
More critically, the consolidation eliminates the federal government’s only dedicated investment in training the special education workforce. Personnel Preparation is how the federal government ensures that universities can prepare the teachers, related services providers, early interventionists, and leadership personnel that IDEA requires. State Personnel Development funds support statewide systems for improving educator quality. Technical Assistance ensures that implementation keeps pace with research. None of these functions are guaranteed under a block grant to states.
The Administration’s rationale is that states should be allowed to spend “based on their needs without Federal prescription.” Historically, however, without targeted federal investment, personnel preparation has often been among the first areas reduced at the state level, which raises concerns about the long-term sustainability of the educator pipeline.
This section has the most direct implications for TED’s mission. If Personnel Preparation funding is absorbed into the state grant without requirements to invest in educator preparation, the dedicated federal investment in training future special education teachers would no longer exist as a standalone national priority.
3. TEACHER QUALITY PARTNERSHIPS AND HAWKINS: ZEROED OUT
Teacher Quality Partnership grants: $70 million — eliminated. This is the federal government’s primary competitive grant program supporting clinically rich, partnership-based teacher preparation. The Administration’s budget justification raises concerns about the program’s approach to teacher preparation.
Augustus F. Hawkins Centers of Excellence: $15 million — eliminated. Hawkins supports teacher preparation programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities and other minority-serving institutions, building pathways for candidates from underrepresented backgrounds into special education and other high-need fields.
ED obligated only $11 million of the $70 million appropriated for TQP in FY 2025. Congress restored the full $70 million in FY 2026. The FY 2027 proposal would formally eliminate the program.
Together with the Part D consolidation, the FY 2027 request eliminates all three of the federal government’s primary investments in special education teacher preparation: Personnel Preparation (IDEA Part D), Teacher Quality Partnerships, and Hawkins Centers of Excellence. The combined cut is $200 million in targeted educator preparation funding.
For programs preparing special education teachers: the federal funding infrastructure that has supported clinically rich preparation, diversified pipelines, and partnership-based models for decades would be significantly restructured under this proposal.
4. INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION SCIENCES: CUT BY TWO-THIRDS
IES, the federal government’s primary education research agency, is cut from $765 million to $261 million, a reduction of 65.8 percent. Within that:
• Research in Special Education (NCSER): $64 million to $10 million — an 84.4 percent cut
• Special Education Studies and Evaluations: $13 million to $2 million — an 85 percent cut
• Research, Development, and Dissemination: $245 million to $40 million — an 83.8 percent cut
• Regional Educational Laboratories: $54 million — eliminated entirely
• Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems: $29 million — eliminated entirely
On March 11, ED significantly reduced IES staffing. Additionally, ED has not distributed $464 million of the $793 million Congress appropriated for IES in FY 2025m 59 percent of the agency’s enacted budget. The FY 2027 proposal would further reduce the federal special education research infrastructure.
For a field that depends on evidence-based practice and that has been a national model for connecting research to implementation , the NCSER cuts are particularly damaging. An 84 percent reduction would significantly limit the center’s research capacity.
5. THE “MAKE EDUCATION GREAT AGAIN” GRANT: 18 PROGRAMS, ONE BLOCK GRANT, A 69% CUT
The budget proposes to consolidate 18 K-12 programs including Title II (Supporting Effective Instruction), 21st Century Community Learning Centers, Education for Homeless Children and Youth, and others into a single block grant called the “Make Education Great Again” (MEGA) grant. Combined FY 2026 funding for those 18 programs: $6.488 billion. Proposed MEGA funding: $2 billion. That is a 69.2 percent cut.
Title II alone, the primary federal investment in state-level teacher quality infrastructure, was funded at $2.19 billion. It is eliminated as a standalone program. For teacher educators, Title II has historically supported state efforts in professional development, class-size reduction, and educator quality systems. Its loss, combined with the elimination of TQP and Part D Personnel Preparation, removes federal support at every level of the educator preparation and development continuum.
6. THE INTERAGENCY AGREEMENTS: WHO MANAGES WHAT
One of the structurally notable aspects of this budget is the Administration’s interagency agreement strategy. Under the FY 2027 request:
• Department of Labor manages $23.1 billion of ED programs (Title I, Impact Aid, Charter Schools, HBCUs, CTE)
• Department of Interior manages $265 million (Indian Education, Tribal colleges)
• Department of Education retains $52.4 billion (almost entirely Pell Grants and Special Education)
• All programs under the HHS and State Department IAAs are eliminated — zero funding
The Department of Education’s budget documents do not mention the interagency agreements. They compare FY 2027 to ED’s FY 2025 “operating plan” rather than to FY 2026 enacted levels, which makes direct comparisons to FY 2026 enacted levels more difficult.
In practical terms, the Department of Education under this proposal would primarily administer Pell Grants and IDEA state grants. OSEP, OSERS, and RSA remain at ED, but with Part D consolidated and IES significantly reduced, the infrastructure surrounding special education at the federal level would be substantially smaller.
7. HIGHER EDUCATION AND STUDENT AID: IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATION STUDENTS
• Federal TRIO programs: $1.191 billion — eliminated
• GEAR UP: $388 million — eliminated
• Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (SEOG): $910 million — eliminated
• Federal Work-Study: $1.23 billion cut to $120 million, a 90.2 percent reduction
• Aid for Hispanic-Serving Institutions: $259 million — eliminated
• Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE): eliminated. FIPSE has historically supported innovation grants to institutions of higher education, including programs at community colleges and MSIs. The Administration’s FY 2027 budget justification states that states and institutions should be responsible for funding higher education innovations without federal involvement.
• Equity Assistance Centers (Department of Education): eliminated. These centers have provided technical assistance to school districts on issues of desegregation and equity compliance. The budget identifies them among programs targeted for elimination.
The Pell Grant maximum is frozen at $7,395 for a fifth consecutive year. The Congressional Budget Office estimates a $5.4 billion shortfall in FY 2026, and the FY 2027 funding level may not fully cover projected costs despite the Administration’s claims to the contrary.
For education students ,especially those entering special education and other high-need fields the elimination of TRIO, GEAR UP, SEOG, and Work-Study removes the financial support infrastructure that makes teaching an affordable career choice. Combined with the proposed elimination of TQP, Hawkins, and Personnel Preparation, these changes would affect multiple points along the educator workforce pipeline.
8. WHAT CONGRESS HAS SAID — AND WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
It is important to remember that this is a presidential budget request, not enacted law. Congress controls the purse. In FY 2026, Congress explicitly rejected proposals to block-grant IDEA, preserved Part D programs, restored TQP and Hawkins funding that ED had withheld, and included language prohibiting the transfer of program responsibilities without congressional approval.
Congressional interest in IDEA’s structure has been bipartisan. Senate HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy has requested testimony from Secretary McMahon and HHS Secretary Kennedy on the interagency agreements. Senator Tim Kaine has introduced amendments specifically prohibiting the transfer of IDEA programs out of ED. Members of both parties have engaged on these issues.
A budget request sets the negotiating frame. The scope of this proposal — which proposes to eliminate or consolidate most discretionary programs outside of Pell and IDEA state grants means that Congress will be considering many competing priorities simultaneously during the appropriations process.
ADVOCACY DEADLINES & OPPORTUNITIES
House LHHS Appropriations Subcommittee: Written public witness testimony deadline is April 16, 2026. Submit to LH.Approp@mail.house.gov with subject “FY 2027 Written Testimony for the Hearing Record.” Under four pages, single-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman, one-inch margins.
Senate LHHS Subcommittee: Programmatic and Congressional Directed Spending requests also due April 16. Senators may submit up to 65 requests for the LHHS bill.
Hayes Letter: Congresswoman Jahana Hayes continues to lead a House letter urging $300 million for IDEA Part D Personnel Preparation. A companion Senate letter is also circulating from Senator Tim Kaine.
9. WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOUR PROGRAM
To summarize the practical implications:
If this budget were enacted as proposed, there would be no federal Personnel Preparation grants for doctoral students. Hawkins funding for teacher diversity pipelines at HBCUs and MSIs would end. TQP grants for clinical partnership programs would be eliminated. NCSER funding would be reduced to levels that significantly limit special education research capacity. Title II infrastructure supporting state educator quality systems would be consolidated into a block grant. TRIO, GEAR UP, and Work-Study — programs that support students entering education careers — would be eliminated or drastically reduced.
These programs represent the federal infrastructure that supports the preparation of special education teachers, researchers, and leaders. They reflect decades of bipartisan investment in the federal role in ensuring that children with disabilities have access to qualified, well-prepared teachers.
Bipartisan support for IDEA’s core structure remains strong in Congress. TED members are encouraged to review this budget, engage with colleagues, and consider participating in the appropriations process ; whether through written testimony, outreach to your congressional delegation, or sharing this analysis with others in the field.
The written testimony deadline is April 16.
Until next time,
Kait
@brennan_kait
Dr. Kaitlyn Brennan
Policy Advisor, TED | Teacher Education Division, CEC
